A Better Life calling

Thursday

Oct 17, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Breaking cycles of poverty and dependence is never easy, but when those who are economically trapped refuse to help themselves, the task becomes next to impossible.

It's disappointing to learn that only a few dozen families have signed on to the Worcester Housing Authority's "A Better Life" program, which aims to provide employment, financial management skills, and better housing — all with the goal of eventually moving families to self-sufficiency.

According to WHA figures, fewer than 7 percent of the families invited to join the voluntary program have done so, in spite of ample encouragement and the recent addition of an incentive that puts those who sign up at the head of a waiting list for better housing.

The good news, as WHA Executive Director Raymond V. Mariano notes, is that the families who have joined are making solid progress. If they stick with the program, they will in time achieve far more than those who remain in the familiar but limited circumstances that public housing can offer.

Worcester has always been generous in aiding the less fortunate, extending assistance with food, clothing, housing, utilities and more to generations of immigrants who arrived here with little, or those who have fallen on hard times.

But such assistance is meant to be temporary, a helping hard while recipients strive for the education, life skills, and job training they need. While there will always be poor families and individuals in Worcester and elsewhere, a social welfare system that works is one that helps ensure that the poor of tomorrow are not the same as the poor of today, or yesterday.

In the past, living in public housing was viewed as a grim necessity, something to be thankful for, but also something of a daily reminder that one wants to do better, to stand on one's own feet.

Mr. Mariano has been a vocal champion of moving away from unconditional assistance to a system that asks those who received to give something back to their community, often by simply making a greater effort on behalf of themselves and their families.

We applaud his efforts and those of the WHA, and ask those who live in public housing to seize the opportunity being placed before them. There is a better life out there, one that requires hard work and effort, but one that generations of Americans — most with far less than we all enjoy today — were able to realize.

You, too, can realize that dream. It begins with saying yes to opportunity.